Beverly Sills’s Co-op on the Market

OPERA singers aren’t generally considered celebrities in the United States, but Beverly Sills certainly fits the description. She had a renowned voice and was an unyielding advocate for the arts — as well as a guest host on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”

Her daughter, Meredith Holden Greenough, is now selling the apartment where she and Ms. Sills lived for some 40 years. It is a three-bedroom co-op at the Beresford, a pale hulk of a building designed by the architect Emery Roth at 211 Central Park West, at 81st Street. The apartment is listed with Sandra Balan, a senior vice president of the Corcoran Group, for $6.995 million.

“For most residents of the Beresford, once they get here, they don’t leave,” said Samantha Pinkowitz, a Corcoran senior associate broker. “It’s one of Central Park West’s crown jewels. Everybody knows it by name.”

Other names you might recognize include current residents, like Jerry Seinfield, and some former ones like Rock Hudson.

Photo

Beverly Sills in 2001.Credit
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Ms. Sills, born Belle Silverman in Brooklyn, is best known for her performances at the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. She retired as a singer in 1980. Off stage, she went on to serve as the general director of the New York City Opera for 10 years and as the chairwoman of Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera.

She also took her considerable charm to the small screen, appearing on programs from “The Tonight Show, “to “The Muppet Show,” to her own Emmy Award-winning “Lifestyles With Beverly Sills.”

Ms. Sills’s apartment is on the fourth floor, with views of Central Park.

Taking a look inside today, one finds more than herringbone floors, high ceilings and an intricate, decorative fireplace. There are also pictures of Ms. Sills in full costume and on the covers of magazines. The Grammy she won in 1976 sits by a floral arrangement in the entryway, and an award she received from the Kennedy Center is on display in the dining room.

Bonnie May, a Corcoran agent who staged the apartment for sale, said that she felt Ms. Sills’s personality could only help to sell her former home.

“I think this is a special case,” she said. “She really was an icon in the city, even after she stopped singing.”